Piles of dead trees create fire hazard at the cemetery
Piles of dead trees create fire hazard at the cemetery
Large piles of wood and dry brush right next to a senior housing complex spark fears of a disastrous fire
Patty Hiller noticed the piles of wood and dry brush at the perimeter of the Sebastopol Memorial Lawn when she first moved to Burbank Heights, a senior housing community that borders the cemetery. She watched the piles grow over the years, but didn’t really worry much about them until the countywide fires of 2017.
“Then it became really scary,” she said, noting that the debris piles’ location right next to a large senior housing complex makes it particularly dangerous.
Over the years, she said she has contacted the cemetery’s owner and the fire department to complain about the piles and the fire hazard they represent, but hadn’t made any headway until this year.
Last night, Hiller and two others from Burbank Heights, including the property manager, appeared at the Sebastopol City Council meeting, pleading for something to be done before fire season begins in earnest.
“We are about 200 people, many of us disabled,” Hiller told the council, describing the inhabitants of Burbank Heights. “We have only one exit off the property. Something has to be done. We’re getting dry lightning this weekend; fire season’s here. That stuff is sitting out there, and I’m scared.”
She is right to be worried. Another vegetation pile at the back of the property caught fire just a month ago on June 16. It was quickly put out through the joint efforts of the Sebastopol and Gold Ridge Fire Departments, but Hiller said, “Smoke covered our whole community. I got my to-go bag ready.”
Sebastopol Fire Chief Jack Piccinini has been working on solving this problem since he first heard about the debris piles from Hiller earlier this summer.
Piccinini contacted the cemetery’s owner Stephen Lang, who said he couldn’t afford to pay for such a large debris removal project. After trying to find an organization willing to take on the project pro bono and getting what he said was a lack of cooperation from the owner, Piccinini went ahead with an enforcement effort against the cemetery under a fire hazard ordinance.
Under this ordinance, an owner whose property contains a serious fire hazard is given several notices before the city comes in and cleans up the problem.
“Last week he received his second notice, so he now has another two weeks to try to do something,” Piccinini said. “After that we provide a final notice of intent to abate—and what that means is then we will send a contractor in to abate the hazard and then the city of Sebastopol will pay the contractor, but then we bill the property owner.”
While the debris piles along the boundary of Burbank Heights remain, Piccinini said that neighbors on the property’s western edge took matters into their own hands and spruced up that side of the property.
“The property perimeter has been cleaned up a bit because the neighbors on Mitchell Court they just all got together one day, went along the property line and cleaned it up. When I walked it just last week, it was like ‘Wow, this is kind of technically in compliance,’” he said.
Piccinini has invited a fire marshal from Sonoma County Fire to come out next week and give his opinion on whether the remaining piles—especially those bordering Burbank Heights—constitute a fire hazard serious enough to require the city’s intervention.
In the meantime, Lang said he has appealed to the state’s Cemetery Endowment Care Fund for a special grant to dispose of the debris piles.
“I’m waiting now to see if those funds are forthcoming,” he said.
He has yet to hear back from the agency, however, and our calls to the Funeral and Cemetery Bureau of the California Department of Consumer Affairs in Sacramento were shunted to a public affairs official, who was still, as of press time, trying to ascertain the status and timeline of Lang’s request.
Because of its status as a historic cemetery, Sebastopol Memorial Lawn pays into a fund that is supposed to ensure that graves are taken care of in perpetuity.
According to a 2017 report on the cemetery endowment fund, qualifying cemeteries “must create an endowment care trust fund … and are required to deposit funds to the trust for each interment space they sell.”
Unfortunately, that same report found that “Although endowment care cemeteries deposit at least the minimum amounts required by law, there is a substantial statewide shortfall.”
Meanwhile, the folks at Burbank Heights are tired of waiting.
Patricia Rainey, who is the president of the resident’s board at Burbank Heights, told the city council last night, “We had to evacuate in 2017. It was very difficult for a lot of the residents and the staff. I know that you’re working on this, and I really appreciate that, but I’ve been told that it’s going to take time…But we can’t wait any longer. There needs to be a solution.”